The victims

Five of those killed have been named as friends from Argentina who had travelled to New York as part of a larger group celebrating the 30th anniversary of their graduation from high school.

The Argentinian foreign ministry named them as Hernán Diego Mendoza, Diego Enrique Angelini, Alejandro Damián Pagnucco, Ariel Erlij and Hernán Ferruchi, all in their late 40s.

A sixth friend, Martin Ludovico Marro, was injured.

A Belgian woman was also among the dead. Belgium’s foreign minister, Didier Reynders, said she “was a woman from Roulers in western Flanders who was on a city trip with with her sister and her mother”, but she has not yet been named.

The two other people who died have not yet been identified.

Two children injured when the truck hit their school bus were not seriously hurt, New York governor Andrew Cuomo said.

Five friends from Argentina celebrating the 30th anniversary of their high school graduation were among those killed in the attack.

Argentina’s foreign ministry confirmed that Hernán Diego Mendoza, Diego Enrique Angelini, Alejandro Damián Pagnucco, Ariel Erlij and Hernán Ferruchi were among the eight people killed when a truck was driven into a cycle lane in Manhattan.

A sixth member of the group, Martin Ludovico Marro, is being treated at the Presbyterian hospital of Manhattan for injuries sustained in the attack.

Reuters reports that the suspect, named as Sayfullo Saipov, has a history of traffic violations, citing media reports and court records.

In one incident, state judicial records show, Saipov was stopped in central Pennsylvania for pulling a truck trailer that was longer than permitted by law, “operating unsafe equipment” and driving with the wrong operator’s licence.

Saipov listed both Paterson and Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, as his addresses. He paid his fine by mail and did not have to appear in court, Reuters reports.

A roughly two-mile (3.2km) stretch of highway in downtown Manhattan was shut down for the investigation. Authorities also converged on a New Jersey home and a van in a parking lot at a New Jersey Home Depot store.

Authorities were scrutinising a note found inside the attacker’s rented truck, according to two law enforcement officials who were not authorised to discuss the ongoing investigation and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Police and the FBI urged members of the public to give them any photos or video that could help.

A minivan is taped off by police at a parking lot of a Home Depot in Passaic New Jersey. Photograph: Jerry Siskind/Reuters

Hours after the terror attack, tens of thousands of New Yorkers gathered in Manhattan for a Halloween parade, and even those dressed as chickens said they were not afraid.

Police guard as revellers march during the Greenwich Village Halloween parade. Photograph: Andres Kudacki/AP

“The police took care of the attack,” said Marc Cruz, a 28-year-old in a chicken costume. He said he felt “pretty safe”.

Brandon McCall, 29, was wearing a luxuriant feather jacket paired with a handmade chicken mask and bright yellow tights. Asked if he had considered not coming to the parade because of the attack that afternoon he said: “Oh no, not at all!”

“So many people were telling me not to come. I said: ‘You have to live your life’,” said Alexandra Colon, 37, who came to the parade as Kate Winslet in Titanic, with a cardboard Leonardo DiCaprio hovering over her shoulder.

Sixteen years ago, Colon had watched the World Trade Center fall from her home across the river in Jersey City. She had not even considered skipping this year’s Village Halloween parade, which she has been attending since she was 17.

“I’m not going to let terrorists stop my life … they’re not going to win,” said Alex Tutino, 20, who was wearing a tangle of neon balloons with paper fish taped to them. He was dressed, he said, as “Finding Nemo.”

There have been multiple – and conflicting – reports that a note and/or flag has been found in the truck used in the attack. The Guardian is working to verify these reports, which have not been officially confirmed.

The New York Times reports that “handwritten notes in Arabic near the truck … indicated allegiance to the Islamic State”, while CNN says a note was written in English, also indicating support for Isis, and was found inside the truck.

The man accused of driving a Home Depot rental truck into a group of pedestrians and cyclists in New York is an Uzbekistan national who lived in New Jersey and drove for Uber.

As authorities work to piece together the events that led to the deadly attack, some details about Sayfullo Saipov’s life are beginning to surface.

Saipov is reported to have entered the US in 2010 and lived in Ohio, Florida and latterly in Paterson, New Jersey.

Dilfuza Iskhakova, who lived in Cincinnati, Ohio, told the Guardian that Saipov had stayed with her for several months about six years ago after arriving from Uzbekistan.

“He seemed like a nice guy, but he didn’t talk much,” Iskhakova told the Guardian. “He only went to work and came back. He used to work at a warehouse.”

Iskhakova said Saipov had been applying for a green card when she knew him. Ohio state records show he registered a business involving vehicles to her home in May 2011.

Iskhakova said her family had lost contact with Saipov in recent years and she thought he had moved from Ohio to Florida, then to the New York region, and that he now had a wife and two young children.